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Home / Accountability / Episode 23: Situational Awareness lessons learned when three feet from death – Part 2

Episode 23: Situational Awareness lessons learned when three feet from death – Part 2

On this episode I continue the interview with Captain John Lightly. John as served as a member of the Youngstown, Ohio Fire Department for 13 years. Youngstown FD has 8 stations and a sworn strength of 135 firefighters. John’s married and has twin daughters who are in 3rd grade. So you can imagine how exciting… and hectic John’s life is. I really appreciate him sitting down with me and sharing his close call survivor story where he almost died as a result of being caught in a flashover. For reasons that will become obvious during the interview, I title this episode “3 feet from death” and dedicate to all the firefighters who’ve been caught in a flashover and did not live to tell their story.

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Click the “Continue Reading” link below to access the show notes.

On October 8, 2009 at 0306 hours, the Youngstown, Ohio Fire Department was dispatched for a fire that would prove to be nearly fatal for (then Lieutenant – Acting Captain) John Lightly. Listen in as John shares powerful lessons that chronicles how he ended up, alone, in this single family residential dwelling conducting a primary search for victims. In this two-part story, you will learn:

How John conducted his size up and made a determination, based on clues and cues that formed his situational awareness, that there was a high probability the house was occupied.

How the flashover occurred within two minutes of entry – a recurring theme I see at flashover casualty incidents.

How John experienced TachyPsychia – or a slowing down of time when the flashover occurred.

Listen to John describe how he felt intuition – in the form of a sick feeling in his gut – and a feeling that someone had punched him in the stomach.

John will also talk about self-speak – the neurological phenomenon where we talk to ourselves during high consequence situations – only John doesn’t call it self-speak. I’ll let him explain.

How John’s entry the first two times were under the premise of assuming the risk of being a firefighter. Yet he admits his entry the third time – he was creating risk… not assuming it.

The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is simple: Help first responders see the bad things coming… in time to prevent bad outcomes.

Safety begins with SA!

Share your comments on this article in the “Leave a Reply” box below. If you want to send me incident pictures, videos or have an idea you’d like me to research and write about, contact me. I really enjoy getting feedback and supportive messages from fellow first responders. It gives me the energy to work harder for you.

Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, EFO, CFO is widely considered to be one of the nation's leading authorities on human factors, situational awareness and the decision making processes used in high stress, high consequence work environments.

He served 33 years on the front lines as a firefighter, EMT-Paramedic, company officer, training officer and fire chief. His doctoral research included the study of cognitive neuroscience and the human factors that flaw situational awareness and impact high-risk decision making.

Dr. Gasaway has authored 6 books and his contributions on human factors have been featured and referenced in more than 400 publications.

Chief Gasaway has conducted training for NASA, the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Department of Defense and every branch of the armed forces including the United States Military Academy and the United States Air Force Academy.

He has conducted situational awareness training for more than 62,000 first responders worldwide including members of the New York City Fire Department’s Incident Management Team, the fire officers associations for Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments and fire brigade members in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

For more than 20 consecutive years, he has presented at the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference, Fire-Rescue International and the University of Maryland’s National Fire Service Staff and Command School.

Saint Florian and Saint Michael the Archangel,

Please watch over all first responders, help them
maintain strong situational awareness, help them
make good decisions in times of stress and time
compression and, above all, bring them home
safely to the ones who love them.